Herpes suit dismissed

JANESVILLE  A lawsuit filed by a Delavan woman who said an Edgerton man gave her herpes has been dismissed in Rock County Court.

The defendantís attorney filed a stipulation for dismissal at the womanís request, according to court documents. Rock County Judge James Welker signed the stipulation April 2.

The 34-year-old Delavan woman filed suit in July in Walworth County Court seeking medical costs and punitive damages from the 36-year-old Edgerton man with whom she said she had a sexual relationship. The case moved to Rock County in March.

The woman did not retain an attorney and filed on her own a large number of briefs and photocopies of emails and Facebook messages. She claimed the man had a legal responsibility to inform her before infecting her with herpes.

Since she was tested positive for HSV-1 and -2 in May 2011, the woman has experienced muscle aches, fever, intense itching and genital sores, anxiety attacks, insomnia, low self-esteem, suicidal thoughts and depression, according to the lawsuit.

She also has suffered emotional distress because her husband has been unable and reluctant to have sexual relations with her, according to court documents. The infection has made her unable to work as a registered nurse, according to court documents.

The woman had a sexual relationship in late 1997 and early 1998 with the Edgerton man, according to the lawsuit. Then for two years starting in June 2009, they had a mutual relationship that included phone calls, emails, flirting and multiple meetings and culminated in sexual intercourse in January 2010 in a parking lot in Janesville, according to court documents.

Both were married, according to court documents.

The 36-year-old Edgerton man said he had a brief romantic relationship with the woman in 1998 but said they have not had sexual contact since, according to court documents filed by his attorney.

Because of the sensitive medical nature of the claims, the Gazette is not identifying the plaintiff or defendant.